The February 09, 2007, post on the Saunterer quoted E. M. Forster on how art, not science, is the best guide to solving interpersonal difficulties. Literature is art, and below we have a past editor and a current editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature confirming E. M. Forster:
Asked in an interview, “Why study literature?,” M. H. Abrams said:
Life without literature is a life reduced to penury. It expands you in every way. It illuminates what you’re doing. It shows you possibilities you haven’t thought of. It enables you to live the lives of other people than yourself. It broadens you, it makes you more human. It makes life enjoyable.
Added Stephen Greenblatt:
Literature is the most astonishing technological means that humans have created, and now practiced for thousands of years, to capture experience. For me the thrill of literature involves entering into the life worlds of others. I’m from a particular, constricted place in time, and I suddenly am part of a huge world-–other times, other places, other inner lives that I otherwise would have no access to.
(Quoted from page 31 of the August 26, 2012, issue of The New York Times Book Review.)
To see E. M. Forster’s related comment, click here.
For a brief biography of M. H. Abrams, click here. For images of or relating to M. H. Abrams, click here.
For a brief biography of Stephen Greenblatt, click here. For images of or relating to Stephen Greenblatt, click here.
Asked in an interview, “Why study literature?,” M. H. Abrams said:
Life without literature is a life reduced to penury. It expands you in every way. It illuminates what you’re doing. It shows you possibilities you haven’t thought of. It enables you to live the lives of other people than yourself. It broadens you, it makes you more human. It makes life enjoyable.
Added Stephen Greenblatt:
Literature is the most astonishing technological means that humans have created, and now practiced for thousands of years, to capture experience. For me the thrill of literature involves entering into the life worlds of others. I’m from a particular, constricted place in time, and I suddenly am part of a huge world-–other times, other places, other inner lives that I otherwise would have no access to.
(Quoted from page 31 of the August 26, 2012, issue of The New York Times Book Review.)
To see E. M. Forster’s related comment, click here.
For a brief biography of M. H. Abrams, click here. For images of or relating to M. H. Abrams, click here.
For a brief biography of Stephen Greenblatt, click here. For images of or relating to Stephen Greenblatt, click here.
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